JAGDISH CHANDER Vs. NEW DELHI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present petition is styled as a "public Interest Litigation". The principle grievance of the petitioner in the writ petition is that there is an increase in pressure on available parking spaces in Connaught Place as there is a continues and constant increase of vehicles. It is contended by the petitioner that a huge parking lot behind Hindustan Times Building had been closed by the respondent for constructing a multi level parking site. The construction at the site is going on at snail space, which added to the misery of vehicle users who used to park their vehicles at the said area. The respondent, as per the petitioner, had added to the problem of the vehicle owners at the aforesaid area by restricting the parking area upto 7022 square meters instead of 36762 square meters. As per the petitioner, parking sites near Hanuman Mandir and Baba Kharak Singh Road had already been closed for constructing a multi level parking and the respondents were now inviting fresh tenders confining the parking area to 7022 square meters. The said action of the respondents is alleged to be arbitrary as drastic reduction of area is going to cause harassment to the vehicle owners. The petitioner has prayed inter alia for the relief of staying the operation of the tender dated 15th May, 2009.

(2.) THE counsel for respondent NDMC, on the other hand, submitted that the present petition was a motivated petition filed by the existing tenderers to whom parking spaces had been earlier allotted as they did not want fresh proposals/tenders to be floated and wanted to continue to enjoy the benefits of the contracts for parking sites earlier allotted to them.

(3.) WHEN we asked the counsel for the petitioner as to what was the petitioner's locus and interest in filing the present petition, the only answer that we got was that though the petitioner had his business in Daryaganj, but he frequently visited Connaught Place and was thus interested in adequate parking spaces being available in the area.